SilverScreen
by SYuuri
Summary: Tommy is ready to take an even bigger turn in his life. A oneshot Tommy-centric.


**Silver Screen**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me. **

**: I didn't watch Zeo back then so I figured I would be using my own timeline. The story took place a few weeks after the graduation and they're no longer rangers. Tommy and Kimberly are still a couple.**

**: And why was I writing again when I said I wouldn't write for a couple of weeks? Because I needed a break from school. Writing eases my soul **_grin_

**: For my sister who's a truly ConYuu lover. **

**--**

Today was one of those rare times when Tommy put aside his tardiness and arrived on time. In fact, he had more than 15 minutes to spare. He once again looked at the slightly crumpled business card in his hand.

**Gravity Production  
Conrad Winchester**

Starting from this morning when the alarm clock buzzed off and woke him up until he prepared his breakfast, the realization still hadn't kicking in yet. He was never a good chef, that's why he always preferred to stay away from the kitchen in afraid of burning down the house. However, that morning his foray to the kitchen yielded an even worse result. His scrambled egg was overcooked and he burnt his toasts twice. He had the house for himself for the rest of the week since his mother was out of town for her high school reunion. It would have been nice if only Kimberly was there… he certainly wouldn't let the chance slide out of his grasp.

Shaking his head off the kinky thoughts that he really shouldn't be having right now, especially when the object of his fantasy was three thousand miles away, Tommy looked back down to the business card and his memory faded to last week.

To say that Zordon would probably chase him off all over the command center, even with him being inside his tube, was an understatement of the year. Jason would probably give him 'the' look and Rocky would never, ever, let the story die; even probably making a book out of it.

He, Tommy Oliver, had finally agreed to accept the offer for being the new White Ranger. It surely would bring a lot of memories, to wear white again. If he had to be honest, he'd always felt the most comfortable in that color even though it turned out to be rather nasty to wash up the grass stain from his wardrobe. He would spend his afternoon and evening fighting numerous hideous monsters that were in need for a serious make-over and having bruises all over his body.

Instead that this time, he didn't have to worry about having to explain to his mother about the grass stain, the monsters would be really made out of plastic, the bruises would be easily wiped away with a little help from alcohol, and that the whole secret identity could be forgotten.

Yep, the one and only Tommy Oliver would be in the Gravity Production's newest television show that would cover the hometown heroes: the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. A TV series about them! How crazy was that? And what made it even crazier was that he would be in it, and not just that, he would bring the White Ranger character to life.

Zordon definitely wouldn't forgive him.

Tommy was paying an extra attention to his shoes when the image of Saba barking at him startled him. What was he doing there? Since when did he love to be under the spotlights? He never found them interesting and he surely wouldn't start today. He was Tommy Oliver, the Loner… he _hated_ being the center of anyone's attention. He probably had gotten much better ever since he moved to Angel Grove, met the team and dated Kim… but still. When he was seven he had had a terrible stage fright and he was only a tree with no lines. What the hell he was thinking now?

He was ready to leave but someone beat him. "Hey, White Ranger!"

Licking his suddenly dry lips, Tommy immediately shoved the card into his pocket and turned around to see a man climbing off a silver Mercedes-Benz, his flabby tummy quivering as he walked to where Tommy was standing.

Conrad Winchester, 45 years old and from his story, was freshly divorced from his wife. Although miserable would be the last word Tommy would use to describe how he looked today. His red striped tie was loose around his neck. With his round, wide, likeable face, Conrad was the perfect image of a successful businessman.

Tommy knew Conrad didn't mean THE white ranger, but it still made him jump nonetheless. Last week was nothing different. He was walking out from the Youth Center when out of the blue, the guy who he hadn't recognized back then, shouted almost accusingly: _"You're the White Ranger!" _

_Sweat had already trickled down his forehead. Acting on impulse, having never been shouted like that in public, Tommy looked around, checking the area. _

"_You're the White Ranger!" _

_Tommy was half relieved that he didn't have his white clothes on or it would have been a dead give away. "I'm sorry, I think you've made a mistake. Obviously I'm not a ranger, let alone the white ranger,"_

"_Don't worry, son, I have the eyes. You're the White Ranger!" _

_Lack of anything to say, Tommy mumbled. "I don't do tights," _

_Groaning in aggravation, the man pulled out his wallet and presented his business card to Tommy. Conrad Winchester. Gravity Production. _

He really didn't like wearing spandex, Tommy stubbornly thought while he watched the older man approaching nearer. Especially when it was white and Kim was marching around in the same tight outfit, only instead of white, hers was pink.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Winchester," Tommy greeted politely and reached out his hand for a firm handshake.

"Afternoon to you too," Conrad beamed widely and looked at Tommy's attire from head to toe, making the long haired martial artist shifted in his feet. "Very nice, you wear white like I've asked you! You're born to fill this role,"

"About that, actually I don't think I could-,"

"Come on!" Conrad got a tight grip around his wrist and practically dragged him inside the building. "Today is your first pre-production meeting so I guess you're a tiny wee bit nervous. Perfectly understandable! But well, you don't have to! I will be there and Peter is a great guy, a bit temperamental at times, but he makes great movies. Oh, Lance is the executive producer. I don't think he would come, since he just flew out from Japan last night, but well, no sweat, maybe we could do some video conference…,"

"Who's Peter?"

"The Director, Tommy… the director!"

Conrad almost shoved him to get inside the elevator and his chubby finger pressed the 8th floor button. When the door slowly slid close with a gentle chime, Tommy knew he was in for the longest ride of his life.

May the Power Protect Him…

--

The room was different from what he had imagined before. The oval shaped room was truly small, with only a single round table and two lonely windows. Sitting around the table were Lance Kohn, the young executive producer with flaring red hair that peeked out just underneath his black softball hat, Peter Brady who unexpectedly showed up only five minutes late, Conrad and two other guys and a girl who he thought were another fellow 'rangers'.

He had done some research on his own and what he found about the production house was pretty impressive. The Gravity Production had released some successful TV series and a few independent films and even Lance was credited as the youngest producer who had brought home some awards.

As Tommy half listened to Lance's introduction concept, he was considering sneaking out of the room with his Ninjetti skill. A second later his shoulders slumped down. There's no way he could go out unnoticed, especially with Conrad hovering near.

There were a fair few things that he always regretted and this with no doubt was definitely one of them. Granted, he wanted to help his mother. After the divorce, his mom had been working day and night and it was simply didn't sit right with him. He would go to college soon and of course, he knew that his parents had been saving up for his future education, but it would be wonderful if he could enter AGU and pay the school fee by himself.

Then there's Jason's offer to get together and open a karate school. Either going to college or accepting Jason's offer, he needed more cash. With the presence of his new jeep, his bank account was almost non existent.

And last, maybe one of these days he could fly up to Florida to see Kimberly. It had been far too long since the last time they saw each other and maybe, if everything worked out, a proposal could be coming her way.

Being a leader for almost 3 years, Tommy had used to make life and death decisions, and how could he have made such a rash, careless decision like this was a mystery. Apparently, his egoistical desperation was enough to make him accept Mr. Winchester's offer to be in the new television series.

"So," Peter clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention. "Shall we begin?"

"First of all, of course, the rangers," Conrad said with a huge smile, nodding at the teenagers in the room. "What do you think of them? In spite of their extraordinary powers, are they normal kids?"

"Well, what else would they be?" Tommy quipped without thinking twice.

Lance waved him away. "Normal… normalcy… I don't think so. I mean, they bear the greatest power to fight evil. How could they be normal?"

Fighting the urge to be sarcastic, Tommy raised his hand, asking for permission to speak. When no one said anything, he went on, "I'm sure you all have watched Superman or Spiderman perhaps? The superhero stuff aside, they live a pretty normal live, I'd say. Peter Parker was a photo journalist. His life was not perfect; he had his issues-,"

"Now young man," Peter pointed his finger at Tommy, stopping him mid-sentence. "We're not making a Spiderman movie and everyone in this room knows that Peter Parker was a journalist. He had a redhead girlfriend named MJ who by chance was also his neighbor. Oh, and I also heard that the Amazing Spiderman had a mole on his left ass. Do _you_ know about that?"

The blond guy who sat across him snickered and Tommy bit his tongue from throwing a petty remark to the young director. _Never escalate a battle, Tommy…_

"Okay, let's say that they're normal teenagers," Conrad took over before the situation got out of hand. "What do they do?"

"What are they wearing?" Lance added.

"Umm... normal clothes?" Tommy dared to test the water. "I mean, they're _normal_ kids so it's just _normal_ if they wear _normal_ clothes,"

"They're rangers…," Peter closed his eyes, as if envisioning the whole scenes in front of his closed eyelids. "Rangers… they have secret identities…,"

Tommy smirked. At least he got that one right.

"I definitely could picture them wearing black coats everywhere… you know, long, black coats… just like federal agents," Peter finished his musing. "Probably wearing sunglasses because they need to keep everything confidential,"

Tommy frowned. And that guy brought home an Emmy last year? "I think they might want to lay low… down to earth… isn't wearing long, black coats with sunglasses would be a little… off?"

"I think that's not a bad of an idea," Lance said, his fingers tapping his chin. "Let's put it in the 'maybe' list,"

"Okay, next one!" Conrad looked through the paper in his hand. The headquarters," His leer was enough to give Tommy goose bumps; Conrad was acting like they were discussing the Dracula's lair.

"How about somewhere on a mountain or a hill?" The blonde guy proposed an idea, a bashful shy tugged at the corner of his lips. Tommy studied him for a while. He didn't look like a bookworm, so he couldn't be there for the role of the blue ranger. He didn't look shy or athletic as well… But well, as Peter had said before, secret identities… no one knew that the blue ranger was a bookworm or that the red ranger used to be a martial artist.

Or that the white ranger was sitting among them right now.

"Not a bad idea," Lance commented. "But if it's on a mountain then somebody could accidentally discover it. And you know the first rule of being superheroes…," He paused and waved his hand impatiently, waiting for someone to continue.

"Keep your identity a secret," The blond and the only girl in the room chorused.

"Exactly!"

"So the rangers wouldn't choose such an exposed place as the headquarter," Conrad said and Tommy was itching to correct him.

_A command centre… command centre… _

"Okay then, not a place in an open field but I think we can use that mountain thing. I like it," Peter replied, swirling in his chair. "Let's make it somewhere underneath a volcano… in the magma chamber, perhaps? Let's just assume they have a sophisticated technology to sustain live in the otherwise unlivable headquarter,"

Tommy quickly masked his laugh to a cough and shifted in his seat. Some people were just unbelievable!

"Okay, let's say it's in the volcano, then how'd they go through all those magmas?" Lance asked logically, finally realizing that the black coats were probably not made from fire-retardant material.

"Teleporting of course," Peter answered smugly, throwing a condescending glance towards his partner. "That's why we need to know what kind of teleportation device they used,"

"Something that could be worn all day without being suspected," The blond gave an option.

"Something small and simple so it's easy to be brought around," The girl said with a smile. She was there either for the role of the pink or yellow ranger, Tommy thought. Her appearance was more like Trini although she sounded bubbly and lively like his girlfriend.

"Something like a watch," Tommy finished happily, thinking about his communicator at home.

"I'd say eyeglasses," Peter mused and Tommy rolled his eyes. What's wrong with Peter and glasses?

"That's pretty wild," Conrad laughed, his belly moving when he did so. "Maybe a heavy rimmed glasses with tinted lens? You know, every rim would have different color. So there would be six colors—white, red, pink, yellow, black and blue and every time they initiate a teleportation, the rim would glow,"

The image tickled Tommy endlessly and it took all his willpower not to burst out laughing then and there. For a while he forgot that _he_ would be wearing all those crazy stuff. Not if he could help it! He understood that they had zero knowledge about being rangers, but some of the ideas were just beyond his imagination. He needed to find his way out of there, fast.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are no volcanoes in California," Tommy said after struggling with his infamous memories. Geography was never his strong point, but he knew that one for sure.

"Damn, that kid has a point," Lance exhaled, his forehead knotted to a deep frown.

"No sweat, we can always say it's in Hawaii," Conrad came to save the day.

Hawaii, long black coats, colorful glowing glasses… Could it get any worse than it already had?

"You know, I watched this Japanese show in cable last night and they had this superhero show, I don't remember the title. Anyway, my point is that in that show, don't they usually have someone to control the headquarter?" Peter's grin turned to a creepy leer. "They normally have a hot chick with smooth skin and long, shiny hair in a tight top and body hugging leather pants…,"

Tommy immediately thought of Alpha in an oversized red bikini suit and this time he really snickered; he couldn't help it. "Sorry, don't mind me," He stammered between breaths, damn it was hard. The brainstorming session had unexpectedly turned to a comedy show.

"We'll consider it," Lance smirked, obviously enjoying the mental image as well. "For adult viewers, we definitely could use some hotties around the show,"

"Meaning we can't forget some love stories then,"

"A love interest for the lead character?"

Conrad leaned towards Tommy and whispered, "He is talking about you,"

"It's pretty obvious that there's something going on with the White and Pink ranger," Peter concluded after checking with his notes and Tommy felt a tinge of pride blossom inside him. He knew that Kim was more than capable to protect herself, but there's just something in her that made him want to be there for her.

The next second, the pride and glee morphed to fear and concern. A love story. Would Kim be okay with that? There could be hugging, hand holding and probably even kissing. Could he do all those affectionate gestures with another girl? The sinking feelings grew worse when he caught the girl in the room winking at him. Tommy reached for his glass and took a long gulp to calm his rapidly beating heartbeat.

"Let's make something different. How about pairing the white ranger with the red ranger?"

Tommy choked on his drink and all eyes quickly reverted to him. Conrad kindly patted his back while both executive producer and director gave him disapproving look.

"What do you mean the white and the red ranger?" Tommy nearly shouted. There's gone the last strain of his dignity. "But, I mean, the red ranger is a guy!" Jason and him… he loved his brother dearly, but he would be having nightmares for a month straight if they really went on with the silly plan.

Peter simply pushed a slightly worn out article closer to Tommy who's still breathing hard. He could handle wearing ridiculous outfit, _probably_, but the prospect of having to date another guy on screen was not tempting, at all.

Tommy looked down and what greeted his eyes was a group picture of the Mighty Morphin; the White and Red ranger in a tight embrace. It was an article from a few years back; just a couple of weeks after he returned as the White ranger. The picture was real. The white ranger and the red ranger were also real.

Except that the red ranger was in fact, Kim.

Nope, no switching bodies that time. Zordon was leaving for a few days and Jason and Kim daringly used the opportunity to make a bet about their logarithm test scores. Jason lost and was forced to do what they had promised before: exchanging morphers for a day; 24 hours.

Couldn't Peter see how short the red ranger was? And if he looked even closer, he would notice that the red ranger actually had breast.

But he couldn't say that, could he? Because he wasn't the former white ranger in that room, _just_ Tommy Oliver.

"The white and red ranger go on a stroll in the park, holding hands and when the sun finally sets, they look deeply into each other's eyes and their faces inch closer… and closer…," Peter said in a sing-a-song tone.

"I can't do this," Tommy complained, knocking his almost empty glass when he abruptly stood up.

"He was joking," Conrad was quick to assure him. "Come on, it's a kid show for God's sake!"

"We need to make a breakthrough!" Peter growled.

"We can always make the red ranger a girl," Lance said.

This was karma, Tommy thought. He shouldn't have been there at the first place yet he came anyway. And look where that got him in the end?

To his doom.

In the middle of the arguments, Lance's cell phone rang. "What!"

"I didn't recall the red ranger being this short," The blond guy whistled after examining the old article and Tommy looked at him. He should be grateful that Kim wasn't in the room with them or she would definitely punch his light off.

"What do you mean by that?" Lance's scream brought everyone back to their seats, except for Tommy who was more than ready to leave the room. "I understand. Fine,"

"What's wrong with having two guys dating? We've seen it before," Peter spoke up, not ready to give up his idea just yet.

"Not in a kid show!" Tommy snapped, unwilling to shut his mouth. "Or maybe you have forgotten that your series is meant for children?"

"Oh you shut up!"

"What happened, Lance?" Conrad turned to the frowning producer. The stunned expression in Lance's face startled him.

"That was Mike," Lance said grimly, his hands still shaking. "He said the show's got cancelled,"

"What?!"

"Are you serious!"

"Oh thank God..," Tommy cheered and buried his face into his hands. It was cancelled! The damn show was cancelled! Tommy nearly leaped from his seat and kissed everyone. He could almost hear the angels coming down from above, serenading his sweet freedom at last. Miracle did happen.

"I have to go," Tommy whispered to Conrad who appeared as flabbergasted as the rest of the crews. He hadn't done hyperventilating when Tommy walked backwards towards the door. "Don't worry, I won't say a word about everything. My lips are sealed,"

"Tommy!"

"Catch you on the flipside,"

--

**: The idea was inspired from a Supernatural episode entitled **_**Hollywood Babylon**_**. The episode had our beloved Alycia Purrott in it. It's a very entertaining episode :) Now I didn't know anything about film-making, so please forgive me if I made tons of technical errors in this story. Please let me know what you think!**

**Yuuri**


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